Nino bernardo

The Centreline and some thoughts on geometry, the other hand and false information.

By Nino Bernardo

Whenever you mention that you practice wing chun to someone who has heard of the art, one of the first things that always comes up is the theory of the centreline. In fact, there are several different definitions of the centreline. For example, some people believe that the centreline runs parallel with the floor through your chest and into your opponent´s chest.

However, my teacher, Wong Shun Leung, believed that we define the centreline at the beginning of the first form. The first move we do after finding our stance is to cross our hands in front of us. For most of us, our arms are of equal length. We then pivot our arms around the fixed point of our elbows. This action draws an invisible vertical line, which runs perpendicular to the floor, rather than parallel.

When we do the wing chun punch, our knuckles touch the line as we extend our arms outwards. This fist then drops slightly as it makes way for the second punch in the sequence. The fist retreats to the starting position, ready to be fired again.

The centreline is also vital for understanding the horse stance. For example, imagine two practitioners going into the horse stance with one leg forward. They touch each others arms to create one unit. In this position, their hands will go through the centreline. The shape I have described looks almost – but not exactly – like a boxing stance. It can be southpaw or orthodox depending on whether we lead with the left or the right.

One very important principle of wing chun is that we don´t use a side stance. The body faces the direction that you want to go. If you are committed to moving in a certain direction, you must turn to face that way. This turns your centreline.

Having said this, all centreline theories leave my head when I´m playing at chi sao. In the game, I try and latch onto one point and gather information. One question I constantly ask my students is: “What is the other hand doing?” You have to be in deep control of one hand not to lose touch with the other one.

It´s also important to understand the principle behind dan chi sao, a single-handed partner exercise. In this drill, you have to feel your partner´s move before you act on it. The principle is that if you act before your partner (or opponent), you´re giving him or her information. One consequence of this principle is that we can deliberately feed false information to an opponent in chi sao.

If we can picture two practitioners playing at chi sao, they might both be trying to mislead the other. However, as an observer, we can see an underlying geometry to their game. Imagine two masses, which are not necessarily equal. They both have prongs sticking out and are supported by flexible bipods. These structures, which might be cranes, come closer until their prongs interlock.

At this point, the weight of both masses remains steady. They form a single mass, maybe a bridge. If this bridge collapses, the prongs sticking out of the cranes automatically ping forward through the centreline and may even pierce the trunk of the opposing mass. However, the computers at the top of the structures are programmed to re-establish contact if it is broken and re-generate the bridge structure.

This analogy is the kind of geometrical structure we should strive for in chi sao. As I mentioned in the first article in the series, the idea is to remove violent intent from the game. Any pain is caused when the bridge structure breaks apart and the arms automatically move forward through the centreline.